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Dakar 2009: SA built Nisans heading for 2009 Dakar Rally.

A total of four South African built Nissan Navara off road racing pickups will contest the 2009 Dakar Rally. All the Navaras have been built in the Midrand workshops of Nissan Motorsport under the direction of general manager Glyn Hall for privateer customers. Hall, who oversaw his Sasol backed team win their eighth successive driver and co-driver championships in the Absa SA Off Road Championship last month, will be acting as team manager for the privateer Team Overdrive of former Dakar star Gregoire de Mevius of Belgium.

He will be assisted by three members of his technical team - engineer Michael Jardim and technicians Wimpie ‘Mac’ Botha and Rocco Hendricks, all of whom have previous Dakar support experience.

Norwegian Ivar Erik Tollefsen and Briton Quin Evans, who competed in this year’s Absa SA Off Road Championship, will be driving their Nissan for Team Overdrive in their third Dakar Rally together. Their best result to date is 16th in 2005. Tollefsen and co-driver Evans have been competing in the Absa SA Off Road Championship for the past two years in preparation for the Dakar.

Krzysztof Holowczyc, of Poland, and Jean-Marc Fortin, of Belgium, will be in their second Dakar in their SA built Team Overdrive Navara. Their best previous Dakar result was 32nd in 2005. Reigning Hungarian cross country rally champions Laszlo Palik and Gabor Darazsi will be competing in their SA built Palik Racing Team Navara. The fourth Nissan Navara will be driven by Belgium’s Jacky Loomans and Marc Lauwers.